In general, Configuration Management (CM) seems to give more folks "wedgies" than anything else to do with document management.
In relatively complicated environments like aerospace manufacturing, my personal opinion is that CM needs to be overseen by someone who has a firm grasp of the big picture (overall operations) of the organization. Merely revising a document is only the beginning of a whole string of decisions ranging the gamut from
- "this will take effect when and if we use up all the old stock"
to
- "Stop everything! Recall all previous models, destroy all existing stock, institute an organization-wide purge of all obsolete versions of this document."
Often, the correct decisions are ingrained in the pertinent personnel to the extent they make them without further thought. Very infrequently, however, some manager will become penny-wise and pound foolish by hiring a low-wage clerk to do something he thinks of as a "filing function" (Configuration Management) when the true function requires managerial level decision making for the optimum decision to preserve corporate profitability and still assure meeting all customer requirements. It also requires thinking beyond the box in terms of knowing that a change as simple as one from straight slot screws to Phillips head may also entail changing production equipment and work instructions and repair instructions and repair kits, changing suppliers, finding a customer for obsolete stock, etc.